| Sumario: | Generative AI (GenAI) is transforming media and cultural industries by reconfiguring the value, governance and exchange of information work. To gain access to large-scale archives of cultural products, tech companies have appropriated cultural content without consent from or compensation for copyright holders and communication workers. This has prompted publishers to pursue legal disputes and new licensing arrangements. Following Mosco's theoretical approach, this article situates AI data markets in the context of commodification, digital rentiership and market-making, contending that the digitisation of content and the emergence of marketplaces through which data are traded signal a recommodification of communication. This enables the reinsertion of communication work into markets as data inputs for AI training and retrieval. Data markets thus consolidate power among large platforms and major publishers while marginalising communication workers.
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